What are the objectives for waste management?

    The Strategy identifies five key objectives in waste management:

    • Provide a domestic waste management service that meets the needs of Wollondilly residents 
    • Provide sustainable waste management and resource recovery services that meet the needs of Wollondilly residents 
    • Create minimal adverse environmental impacts associated with the provision of waste management services 
    • ‘Lead by example’ by demonstrating sustainable waste management practices across its services, and 
    • Work cooperatively with other Councils to seek mutually beneficial and cost-effective regional waste management solutions. 

    How will Council help residents to reduce the amount of rubbish in red-lid bins?

    Wollondilly Shire Council will continue to pursue a reduction in municipal solid waste by: 

    • Encouraging residents to reduce their rates of waste generation 
    • Encouraging residents to make use of the kerbside recycling scheme 
    • Encouraging residents to recycle their food organic waste at home (eg. backyard composting and worm-farming,chook keeping, preserving food), and 
    • Investigating available technologies aimed at recovering reusable resources from the ‘red-lid’ bin. 

    Is Council offering any incentives to help people reduce their red-lid bin waste?

    We’re working on a range of ways to help residents reduce waste in their bins:

    • Food waste makes up over 30% of the contents of our red-lid bins. We’re providing free workshops in composting and worm-farming, preserving food, chook keeping and growing seasonal veggies, to encourage residents to keep food waste out of the bin and instead create a richer and more fertile garden.
    • Residents can opt for one of three red-lid bin sizes. By generating less red-lid waste residents can downsize their bins. Great for the environment, great for the budget.
    • A large proportion of the red-lid bin’s contents is packaging waste. Council’s community education program will include sharing simple and practical ways of reducing packaging waste.

    What is the current domestic waste collection service?

    The current domestic waste collection service offers residents: 

    • An 80-, 120- or 240-litre garbage bin emptied weekly 
    • A 240- or 360-litre recycling bin emptied fortnightly 
    • A 240-litre garden organics emptied fortnightly on the alternate week to recycling (urban areas only), and 
    • Two kerbside clean-up collections per year provided at scheduled intervals. 

    The collection service is provided by a contractor. Council conducts regular contract performance meetings with the contractor to monitor service delivery standards and the contractor’s and Council’s compliance with the conditions of the contract. 

    Contracted service arrangements have served the Shire’s residents well for many years, and there are no plans to change this structure.

    How will this Strategy and Action Plan impact residents?

    The Strategy and Action Plan are aimed at assisting residents to manage their waste in a way that is both affordable and environmentally sustainable.

    How will the Strategy and Action Plan impact businesses?

    Part of the Strategy and Action Plan focuses on local waste infrastructure to ensure businesses have convenient access to commercial and industrial waste disposal. Council also offers competitively priced waste services for local businesses.The NSW EPA provides the Bin Trim program for businesses.

    Is Council proposing any changes to the current service?

    While there are no short term plans to change current household waste collection services we are continuing to explore the feasibility of changing to a system where residents place both garden and food waste in the green-lid bin called FOGO ( Food organics and Garden Organics). 

    Will there be any changes to tipping fees?

    Tipping fees at the Bargo Waste Management Centre will be reviewed regularly against those of other waste disposal facilities in the region.

    Why is it important to reduce our waste?

    Wollondilly Shire residents generate over 21,000 tonnes of household waste per year. That’s about 400 kilograms per person. With dwindling natural resources and increasing waste transport and disposal costs, it’s in all our best interests, both environmentally and financially, to work together to reduce the amount of waste we generate.

    What do you mean by circular economy?

    For wastes that are re-usable resources, a circular economy means making all steps in the product lifecycle locally viable:  manufacture, consume, dispose, recycle, re-manufacture, and so on.

    Until recent years much of the recyclable plastic we placed in yellow-lid bins was sent overseas for processing and re-manufacture into new products. Governments at all levels and industry bodies are now working together to develop ways of kick-starting the on-shore recycling and re-manufacturing industry.

    Government departments and industry can help create the circular economy by adopting policies to buy products with recycled content, for example, photocopy paper, building products and road and foot-paving materials, etc.

    Where does our waste go?

    Currently most of the contents of our red-lid bins go to landfill. Council is partnering with four neighbouring councils with an aim to contracting a waste management company to provide an advanced waste treatment technology that will result in a major reduction in landfilling.

    The contents of our yellow-lid bin are separated at a sorting facility in Spring Farm. The separated materials are then delivered to different organisations who specialise in recycling the respective materials. While steel, aluminium, paper and cardboard are all recycled within Australia, plastic containers are delivered to overseas companies for recycling. While there is no facility currently available in Australia to re-manufacture waste glass back into glass products, waste management companies are currently trialling a process of washing and finely crushing glass for use as an additive to foot- and road-paving and other construction products.

    The contents of our garden organics bins are delivered to a composting facility at Glenlee. The product is shredded and stored for composting. Once the composting process is complete, it’s turned into a range of products such as garden mixes of different grades that you see for sale in bulk at landscape supply centres.

    Most of the materials presented for the current kerbside clean-ups are landfilled however metal items are collected separately and recycled. Council’s joint initiative with four partner councils outlined above includes seeking an advanced treatment that will divert these materials away from landfill.